Teens Review: Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philipia Pearce

Tom’s Midnight Garden – by Philipia Pearce

“One.  Two.  Three.  Four,”  Tom counts lying in bed.  “Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.”  Thirteen?  “That can’t be right!” Tom exclaimes.  But the next night he spends in the small bedroom at his Aunt and Uncle’s flat is the exact same.  A thirteenth hour?  “It’s too amazing to be true,”  Tom writes in a letter home to his sick brother Peter.  This thirteenth hour perplexes Tom, and even scares him at first …but after many nights Tom decides to explore this mysterious thirteenth hour.  He slips out of bed, checks to make sure his Aunt and Uncle are sleeping, and he quietly walks down to the old grandfather clock.  As he burned a match to check the time, he couldn’t help but gasp!  It was thirteen o’clock!  And even better than that, his Aunt and Uncle didn’t seem to notice.  So every night, when the old clock struck thirteen, Tom would slip out of bed, and he had a whole hour to himself …and when he crawled back into bed, not a second had passed!

This book was so good (I even snuck down during the night to see if there was a thirteenth hour!).  The combination of mystery, fantasy, excitement, and sorrow all bound into one book, makes for an awesome read.  The suspense at times was too much to bear, and I would find myself reading for longer than I should have!  This book made my imagination swirl, I started to think about little things in different ways, and loved the idea of the book.  I would highly recommend this book if you have read Lord Of The Rings, or Harry Potter.  Although the pace is a little slower than both of those books, the suspense, excitement and magical twist is just the same.  I warn you though, once you pick up this book, you may not b able to put it down!

Rachel L.